Newly Initiated Men Welcomed Home By Minister Anroux Marais | Western Cape Government

News

News

Newly Initiated Men Welcomed Home By Minister Anroux Marais

3 January 2018

Following the end of the 2017/18 Summer initiation season, Minister Anroux Marais welcomed home the newly initiated men in Gugulethu at the Initiates Homecoming Celebration earlier this morning.

Initiation is the cultural transition from boyhood to manhood. In the Western Cape, it is predominantly practiced by Xhosa, Sotho and Hlubi cultures. The province has a track record of the safest initiation practice in the country. Parents proudly take their boys for initiation to prepare them for adulthood and to instil family and societal values.

It is for this reason that the Western Cape Government is committed to ensure that the rite of passage is preserved and practiced in a safe and conducive environment. The primary objective of the Department Cultural Affairs and Sport is to ensure a safe and enabling environment for the effective rite of passage to responsible adulthood. To give effect to its intention, the department has established 33 initiation forums across the province in communities where initiation sites are present.  The role of the forums is to preserve the practice as well as ensuring compliance with the regulatory framework introduced by the Department.

We remain committed to facilitate the safe return of all initiates. At the Homecoming Celebration, Minister Marais said, “We congratulate all the parents whose children returned home safely and the young men for the successful completion of the sacred rite of passage.  We wish you well in all your future endeavours as the men in this community and the greater Western Cape”. Minister Marais also expresses her heartfelt gratitude to the Western Cape Departments of Health and Social Development, Cape Nature, Mountain to Ocean, the South African Police Services and the different municipalities for their ongoing support in ensuring the traditional practice of initiation is done in a safe and conducive environment.  

Media Enquiries: 

Stacy McLean
Spokesperson for Minister Anroux Marais
Email: Stacy.McLean@westerncape.gov.za
Tel: 021 483 4426
Cell: 083 504 117